Nowadays the face of wafers is scribed in the manner of some kind of soft mark at a very low depth. Such scribing serves to recognize wafers in the process flow in the manufacture of semiconductor devices such as processors in particular. The reason for using soft marks of a very low depth resides in the fact that a smooth transition between the wafer plane and the pit in the wafer is required in order to achieve a constant resist film layer at the scribing site, too. Whenever this is not the case the reliability of the resist film layer is insufficient, which leads to the result that particles of the material may be released in the subsequent steps of wafer processing and might thus cause trouble in the semiconductor devices. However, the inscribed flat pit is too superficial to survive all the operating steps throughout the manufacture of the devices. For this reason a re-inscription is necessary. Such a re-inscription is firstly a time-consuming operation and secondly it results in impurities in possible devices because some material may be transferred from the scribing region to the device region.
It is for this reason that the present invention seeks to provide a wafer scribing method and a wafer-scribing device which avoid any contamination and the formation of conceivable materials such as metal oxides which could dramatically interfere with or destroy the functionality of devices.
This problem is solved by a wafer scribing method wherein a defined beam is directed onto the wafer by means of a beam generator means, so as to remove some wafer material from a region of the wafer, which method provides the further operating step of generating a first radiation pulse having a predeterminable energy density and used to create a deep pit in the wafer, whereas the pit is deep enough to remain a pit throughout a manufacture of semiconductor devices on said wafer.
The problem is further solved by a wafer scribing method wherein a defined beam is directed onto the wafer by means of a beam generator means, so as to remove some wafer material from a region of the wafer, which method provides the further operating step of generating a first radiation beam having a predeterminable energy density and used to create a deep pit in the wafer, whereas the pit is deep enough to remain a pit throughout a manufacture of semiconductor devices on said wafer, and whereas an edge of the pit is smooth.
The problem is moreover solved by means of a wafer scribing device including a wafer mount and a beam generator means, which serves to render at least one defined beam visible on the wafer, wherein a radiation pulse can be generated by means of which a comparatively deep pit can be created in the wafer, whereas the pit is deep enough to remain a pit throughout a manufacture of semiconductor devices on said wafer.